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ok, so i have never posted a tactic on here before, and im doing so to try and boast that i have the killer tactic. I dont.
im posting this because i have a tactic which i have created using a theory which is working well thus far and i am looking for input to make it work even better.
I decided to start a new game with Arsenal for this theory/tactic
I took the theory behind RoT, that each player should have a close player who has a similar mentality, and decided to take it a bit futher. I also wanted to combine it with my theory that a team could function as basically 2 seperate units of 5 (back 4 + DM and front 2 plus 3 AM). Not that they are isolated from each other, but simply that one can trust the other to do its job and therefor free's them up to concentrate on their part.
The shape i chose is 4132 with a DM and 3 MC's, the outermost MC's with DFARROWS.
When creating my back 5 ( i view Gilberto purely as a defensive player), i decided to take RoT a step further and set them all with the same mentality ( i chose 5). I also set all their creative freedom and passing to the same level. I then took it the whole hog and made them all have the same closing down.
At this point i them moved on to set up the two outer MC's and the 2 strikers. I set them all with the same mentality,passing,closing down and creative freedom as well (unit 2 if you will). I decided to make the centre MC the "link" if you will. I set his instructions as half way between those i chose for the 2 units.
tweaking has meant that the ST's now have higher menatilty than the midfielders. I decided that based on my theory of "attackers are attackers, defenders are defenders" that both attackers should have 20 mentality and it seems to be working well.
The other tweak i added was to put tight marking on for the FB's and the wide(r) midfielders. This has not been tested for long, but its done ok so far. The reason behind this was 2 fold, 1 to avoid the throw in problem that el padre has highliged in his thread, and the second was that reviewing highlights of the goals i had conceded, it seemed that the majority came from wide areas and that in each case the FB was not tight enough to his man.
I would probably take off the tight marking for either the FB's or the wide midfielders against a top tier team to avoid them being skinned time and time again.
Anyway, results so far are decent, 16 matches, 34 goals for, 10 against.
]fixtures 1[/URL]
]fixtures 2[/URL]
Shape of tactic:
Summary of tactic (coz the above is just rambling
Mentality:
Defensive for the defensive unit, moderate for the 3 MC's, Full attack for the attackers. Its common sense really. Let each player do the job that they are paid to do.
Creative Freedom:
Low for the defenders, Moderate for the 3MC's, higher for the attackers - see above comment
Passing Style:
Short for the defenders, they are skillfullish defenders so i am happy to trust them to play it short. Direct for the outer MC's as i want them to speed the game up when they get the ball, mixed for the MC and the SC's
Closing Down:
Low for the defenders, make the man beat you i say, mixed for the centre MC ( i like to allow him to vary everything he does) higher for the outer MC's and the SC's to pressure other teams into mistakes in areas where they will likely have lower skill players (DM's and D's)
Tacking:
Hard for the back 5, they all have high tackling skill, let them use it. (Not one sending off from this yet). Normal for all others
Tempo:
Slow - I find that no matter how i set it up, high tempo just doesnt work, no other reason for using slow than it seems to work.
Time Wasting:
Rarely - my team are good, i want them to make use of the ball when they have it.
Defensive Line:
Deep - Too many teams with pacey attacks in EPL, lets stand off and let them beat us.
Thanks about the jist of it. Be gratefull for any feedback or ideas to tweak. Also to hear if it works for others or if its a flukey one off for me.
I use a very similar tactic with Arsenal, albeit not as advanced as your. Due to being a relative FM novice I had a diabolical start, developing a tactic, my excuse anyway As the season progressed I formulated a 4-1-3-2 tactic since it seemed to fit in with the players I have at the club.
I tend to play a high tempo, with everyone set to short passing. Anyway a few questions for you........
Do you have a specific setting for width within team instructions? I tend to play narrow, haven't noticed many goals coming from out wide so can't complain.
Are your whole team set to zonal marking or do you have specific marking instructions?
What about forward runs, crossing, through balls etc how do you like to have those set?
I have real problems in defence, early goals, set pieces, mistakes are really killing me. Any tips?
The tactic is not going to be defensively tight. Its set up to be very attacking with only really 5 players contributing to the defensive side.
It should work with arsenal.Rosicky, Cesc and Hleb make the perfect midfield 3. Henry as the left striker ripped teams appart for me.
Re the other questions, there is a link at the bottom of first post to d/l the actual tactic with all the settings etc.
I have now implimented this into my liverpool save game (where i was struggling badly previousl) and it has turned the season around. Going to test it on my Hearts game as well to get an idea of how well it may work with a slightly lower class team.
The one thing i have noticed is that with this i cannot beat teams which are top class. Against chelsea man u and arsenal i struggled a bit.
I think this is the key to the game, in a lot of threads i see people talk about looking which formation the opposition is playing and setting up to counter that. I dont believe in this approach. I believe that when playing a team where you have better/the same level of players. play your tactic and let them worry about you rather than the other way round. However when taking on a team with better players, you have to try and win the game tactially and adapt to take advantage of weakness. This is something im still working on.
The first part works, with this formation i hardly ever drop points to teams below me in the league.
Also, still cant score from corners or throw ins. If anyone can tweak this aspect, please let me know!
you've done your homework, i got promoted as leeds in my first season but have been slaughted in the premiership, untill now this is turning my season around im already out of the drop zone. thankyou.
definately did the trick in turning round my liverpool season culminating in reaching the CL final. Lost it to Man U, but given that i had 5 first teamers ineligible, it was to be expected.
This tactic seems to generate a lot of crosses, would be interesting to see how it worked with a tall striker, Kuyt doesnt seem to be great in the air, and my other strikers are all small (missed out on Klose to the arse, then Trez to Real).
4 - 1 - 3 - 2 - A different Theory 
As the season progressed I formulated a 4-1-3-2 tactic since it seemed to fit in with the players I have at the club. 
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